Site Selection is pleased to present its fifth annual Best to Invest rankings of nations and metro areas for investment-attraction activity in 2012. The national Investment Promotion Agencies and metro areas recognized here were particularly successful in 2012 at attracting capital investment projects — both expansions of existing facilities and new projects — from investors at home and abroad.
The editors welcome the participation of: (1) Amsterdam-based FDI advisory Investment Consulting Associates (ICA) and its LocationSelector.com FDI software solution, a comprehensive suite of market analysis tools and research used by corporate executives and site location experts worldwide; and (2) IBM Global Business Services and Brussels-based IBM-Plant Location International, which tracks global flows of foreign direct investment and publishes an annual Global Location Trends report.
Methodology
Fifty percent of the national rankings were based on growth in new facilities, capital investment and job creation using data from Conway Data's New Plant database and from IBM-PLI's database of new projects for calendar years 2011 and 2012. Each country was ranked on the total number of projects, investment and jobs created both as raw value and as a per capita value.
The other 50 percent of the ranking was based on the Location Rank and Competitiveness Score resident in LocationSelector.com's proprietary database using these factors: business costs, economic strength, infrastructure; regulatory burden; and tax rates.
Fifty percent of the metro rankings were based on growth in new facilities, capital investment and job creation using data from Conway Data's New Plant database and from IBM-PLI's database of new projects for calendar years 2011 and 2012.
The other 50 percent was based on the Location Rank and Competitiveness Score using LocationSelector.com's proprietary database using these factors: economic strength and infrastructure (physical capital). Additional points were given to those metros that ranked among the top 25 metro destinations for Foreign Direct Investment Projects as identified in IBM's Global Location Trends report.
Site Selection congratulates the countries, national investment promotion agencies and metros recognized here for their success in attracting foreign direct investment in a global economy that remains lukewarm.
Capital investors only invest where they are confident they will earn a meaningful return, and these locations deliver that confidence.
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